YMCAs: Still A Place You Can Go?

by Ryan Vagabundo

In the more innocent year of 1978, the Village People exhorted down-in-their-shoes young men in a new town to consider the lodging options of the local YMCA. While most of the focus of that song over the years has been the "men enjoying hanging out with the boys" bit, I'd like to center this more on the "short on your dough" part of it.

The YMCA started out in the mid-1800s in Europe as a religious-rooted wholesome alternative to bars and taverns, for young men to hang out, socialize and exercise without alcohol. The organization got into the landlord game in the late 1800s, joining the broader movement of building simple and inexpensive "single room occupancy" lodgings aimed at traveling workers such as sailors and men of the railroad.

Why the Y?

Well, for starters, they usually have the lowest prices for lodgings around. That was always the main appeal in decades past, but even looking around now I'm seeing rates for their rooms at well under $200 per week at the locations I can find that list prices online. Some also have hostel-style "dormitory" beds at even lower prices.

Another big reason would be a more tightly managed experience in this end of the market. There are still some other places competing in this price range, but they often tend to have serious problems with noise, bugs, criminal behavior and so on. You might have some more rules to deal with at Ys, like restrictions on visitors, but the tradeoff is (ideally) a more quiet and clean experience than you usually get with things like other SROs, hostels or shared AirBnBs.

Finally, there are some added perks for that low price. One would be free access to the fitness centers that YMCAs often have. They might also have other recreational activities, free use of meeting rooms, or free classes you can attend.

A 1985 article from the Chicago Tribune extols the virtues of the Y for travelers, and is probably still pretty accurate (other than the prices).

Different Ys, Different Arrangements

In terms of lodging, not much has really changed with the Y in the past 140 years. The properties still tend to offer SRO rooms, where one has a small and very basic room to themselves and bathrooms/showers are shared out in the hall somewhere (also possibly a community kitchen). The one big difference is that not as many Ys offer rooms any more, but there are still quite a few that do.

The other difference is that each property has sort of adjusted to serve the general needs of its local community. By that I mean, the demographics are no longer really travelling workers any more; they now sometimes focus more on providing long-term housing to the homeless or low-income of the local area.

In fact, I could only find two that offered rooms on a drop-in casual basis via an online booking, without any sort of application process or longer-term commitment. That was the YMCA of the East Bay in Berkeley, CA, which lists nightly rates ($55 to $65, not the most competitive prices in some cities but affordable in the very expensive Bay Area), and the YMCA Honolulu (roughly the same price).

Most of the other ones I found seem more geared to longer-term housing for locals. Most had some kind of application process, and one (in Somerville, MA https://somervilleymca.org/programs/housing/affordable-housing/ ) flat-out says that they are not taking applications as there is already a long waiting list.

So it seems you'll need to look up the YMCAs where you are, or where you're planning on being, and see what the deal is with each one individually. Look on their website for a "residency" or "housing" section. I'll share the few that I skimmed over in putting this article togehter, divided by how they handle housing:

Call Ahead to Inquire

* Newark, NJ

* Blue Ridge Mountains, NC

* Portland, ME

Requires Application

* Phoenix, AZ

* Glendale, AZ

* Harrisburg, PA

* Binghamton, NY

Requires Application & Proof of Income

* West Cook - Chicago area, $1,800/mo net income

* North Shore area - Massachusetts, several different facilities, unspecified income requirement, landlord references and criminal background check

These are just some of the examples out there, you can likely find more via Google or Bing. And of course, my perspective is from the US; you can find YMCAs all over the world, and those in other countries may have different terms and situations (would love to hear more about them on Twitter if you have direct experience with them)